Farrah researches smart water infrastructure systems–how to make them more efficient, how to protect them against cyber attacks, and how to coordinate them with other urban systems like energy and transportation to reduce costs, energy consumption, and emissions, and to increase access.
It’s a different path than the one she originally set out on as a chemical engineering student in Iran, where the petrochemical industry was her logical next step.
“I started thinking about the impact of petroleum on our lives in terms of environment, water, energy, all of that,” she says.
It wasn’t good. In this episode, she talks about switching educational gears, and coming to the U.S to work on developing renewable forms of energy. It wasn’t easy leaving her family, friends, and culture behind, but the mindset she developed as an international student helped her push through the tough times. It ultimately helped in her career, too, both starting out in industry, and in her role now as a professor and mentor for other students, especially those from other countries. She tells them that yes, they can use the difficulties of being so far from home as an excuse.
“But if you use it to grow, you are going to accomplish things you would never, ever think you could.